No More Bickering in Rochester – at Least During April

Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - One of the first items of business at Monday night’s Rochester City Council meeting is dealing with a proclamation by Mayor Ardell Brede. Hopefully, it won’t be controversial and lead to arguments and name-calling.

The mayoral proclamation calls on Rochester residents ”to recognize the importance of civility and apply civility in daily interactions with others.”

The request for the “proclamation for civility” came from the US Conference of Mayors. The Revive Civility Month in Rochester proclamation will be in effect during April.

The council is also scheduled to take up a request to use up to $1,000,000 in CIP funds for the Chateau Theatre to make needed repairs and renovations to allow the historic building to be used on an interim basis while a long-term plan is finalized.

Also on the agenda is a request to hire a private firm to assess the operations of the Mayo Civic Center in hopes of dealing with a rising budget deficit. A recent forecast shows flat revenues through 2023 with increasing expenses that would raise the annual shortfall from $1.9-million to $2.5-million.

The firm has offered to conduct the assessment at a cost not to exceed $94,500.